THE REGION: WHO WILL DO THE BUILDING?

THE REGION: WHO WILL DO THE BUILDING?; Green's Race to Rehabiilitate New York City's Crumbling Educational Infrastructure

By DIANE CAMPER

Published: May 29, 1988

In his efforts to change New York City's troubled schools, the new Chancellor, Richard R. Green, can still capitalize on political good will in the State Legislature. But with its session expected to end early in July, he will have to hurry if he seeks solutions for many of the serious problems - from the bloated, unresponsive bureaucracy to filthy, crumbling buildings.

The most controversial proposal, giving Mayor Koch more control over the central Board of Education, was practically dead on arrival in the face of stiff opposition from city legislators including Jose E. Serrano, Democrat of the Bronx, who heads the Assembly Education committee. Mr. Serrano, a frequent political adversary of the Mayor, said Mr. Koch already had effective control of the board through the budget process and his personal influence.

But still very much alive are several proposals that their supporters say are aimed at limiting cronyism, bureaucracy and inefficiency.

Mr. Green and Robert Wagner Jr., president of the Board of Education, want to prohibit elected officials from serving on community school boards, to limit the authority of the city's Board of Examiners to certify teachers, to give school superintendents more flexibility in the assigning of principals (who now enjoy lifetime tenure in their schools) and to create a new agency to take charge of school construction.

The proposal to keep elected officials off the community school boards faces little opposition, and it is generally acknowledged that the tests administered by the city's Board of Examiners, in addition to the state's tests, unnecessarily complicate teacher hiring.

But the union that represents principals may oppose a proposal that would make it less likely that a principal would be able to remain in the same school indefinitely.

And also at risk is the plan to turn school construction over to an agency that would have considerably more flexibility than the school board. Some unions and some construction contractors oppose the effort to make such an agency relatively independent of the rules and restrictions that govern most municipal construction.

Nothing speaks more eloquently to the deterioration of the educational environment in New York than the physical condition of the schools. A panel appointed by Mr. Wagner in 1987 found that more than a quarter of the buildings needed substantial roof repairs, almost half had windows in poor condition, and at least 20 percent had inadequate lighting, heating or plumbing.

Last August, Felix G. Rohatyn, chairman of the city's Municipal Assistance Corporation, offered $600 million for school construction, but said he would not give the funds to the Board of Education's division of school buildings. It was taking the division as long as eight years to build a school, he said, with huge cost overruns and shoddy results.

The board and the city have instituted some changes to shorten the process by as much as three years, but still a number of public officials and even the board itself think it should get out of the business of building schools.

The physical condition of the schools has been at the top of the city's agenda. Winning Concessions

Mayor Koch, in his executive budget, allocated $5.2 billion over 10 years in capital funds for the schools - more than doubling the city's previous commitment. And in recent negotiations, the Board of Education won some important concessions from school custodians. They agreed to perform routine maintenance chores, like fixing broken toilets and windows, and to paint school interiors every five years. Under the board's present system of using outside contractors, schools are painted once every 33 years.

But the question of who will build new schools and renovate the old ones remains.

Governor Cuomo has proposed a bill to give the job to the State Dormitory Authority, which finances construction projects across the state. Many legislators feel, however, that the Dormitory Authority would be overburdened by such a responsibility.

Assembly Speaker Mel Miller, a Brooklyn Democrat, and James H. Donovan, an upstate Republican, who is chairman of the Senate Education Committee, are drafting their own proposals to create an entirely new agency to oversee school construction. State Comptroller Edward Regan offers a third view, less likely to prevail: ''If the city's processes aren't working,'' he said last week, ''the processes ought to be fixed and the Mayor should be made to fix them.''

Acrimony that has developed between the legislators and Mayor Koch over state school aid and other issues such as city pensions may further complicate negotiations. And Mr. Rohatyn has been growing impatient. After the collapse of the Williamsburg Bridge, he suggested that he might use the $600 million he wanted to give the schools to improve the city's infrastructure.

Photo of a classroom with a badly damaged ceiling and walls at P.S. 58 in the Bronx (NYT/Jack Manning)